Spring cleaning gets all the attention, but doesn’t fall cleaning almost make more sense?

Summer’s over, you still might have a month or so of nice weather, you need to get ready to hunker down for the winter - the time is right to clear out and clean up.

And since few household chores provide the visceral satisfaction of cleaning and organizing the basement or garage, why not start there?

What a relief to finally say goodbye to those chairs that never really worked out, the tire chains from two cars ago, and those cans of paint from a previous owner’s 1970s psychedelic remodeling job. And while you’re at it, why not make your garage or basement clean-up even more rewarding and turn it into a green makeover?

Give it up
Start by simply gathering together all the stuff in the basement and garage you want to give away or sell. Unless you have items worth more than $100 apiece, it may not be worth the time and trouble to sell them.

Once you have a pile, use online or newspaper classified ads and exchanges to find a home for your items, offer them to family and friends, or donate them to a charity. To find charities that will accept them, consult the "Miscellaneous Household Items" section in King County’s "What Do I Do With...?" website (metrokc.gov).
 
Don’t donate items that need repairing, since most charities do not have resources to deal with those. But offer them to individuals who might fix them, or you can consider creative reuse options. For example, turn the long handles from broken tools into garden stakes, and bring an old inner tube back to life as weather-stripping for a basement door.

Pick your poison
When you have so many pesticides, paints, polishes and powders that you lose track of them, it’s time to take a stand. First organize your chemicals by type, such as lawn and garden, auto, cleaning and paint. Then pull out the ones you will never use.

For standard household chemicals such as cleaners, ask your neighbors if they want them. When they use them for their proper purpose, it can avoid the purchase of a new product. Take the rest to a household hazardous waste disposal center (govlink.org/hazwaste/house/disposal). Never dump them down the drain or put them in the garbage.

If you have leftover latex paint, however, you can dry that out and put it in the garbage, since solidified latex paint is not a problem there. King County’s Local Hazardous Waste Management Program collection facilities no longer accept latex paint.

Corralling the clutter
Setting up an efficient organization system is one of the greenest things you can do in the garage or basement, since it reduces waste. When you just store stuff helter-skelter, it tends to get damaged, or you forget what you own and buy new products you don’t need.

But you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on fancy storage systems, despite what some organizational experts say. If you purge unneeded items and commit to buying less stuff in the future, much of your existing shelving may work just fine.

If you do need to buy new storage racks, choose wire shelving, since it easily lets you see what’s on all the shelves and doesn’t collect dust. Group your items intuitively, by use and season.

The Seattle basement problem
Another likely cause of waste in your basement is simply the fact that it’s in Western Washington. Few basements here stay completely dry, and many of us have had to throw away things from our basements because they got damp, musty or totally soaked. These strategies can help avoid that before the serious rains start up again:

- Address the basic problem. Fix the gutters, slope the grade of soil away from the house, or install a new drainage system to keep your basement dry. Make sure the clothes dryer is vented outdoors.

- Keep everything at least four inches off the floor. Even if water doesn’t seep in from outside, a washing machine hose or sump pump line could burst.

- Choose alternatives to cardboard boxes for basement storage. Moisture easily gets into cardboard boxes, not to mention bugs, rats and mice. The experts at Mrs. Clean Northwest, a Lynnwood-based house-cleaning company, recommend using only airtight, waterproof containers.

Paint it green
Finish off your garage or basement green-up with a fresh coat of paint. If you find enough leftover latex paint, mix together several cans of similar colors and use that.

Or try MetroPaint (oregonmetro.gov), the low-cost, 100-percent recycled latex paint now sold in gallons at Second Use Building Materials (www.seconduse.com) in South Seattle. Metro, a regional government agency in Portland, makes this product from paint collected at household hazardous waste centers. Guaranteed for five years, it comes in various colors with evocative names, just like regular paint. How about Crater Lake for the basement, and Espresso for the garage?  

Note: Tom adapted and updated this article from a column he wrote that ran in the 6/28/08 Seattle Times.

For more EcoConsumer resources from King County, visit www.KCecoconsumer.com.


      

Tom Watson is a project manager for King County and is the Seattle Times columnist of "EcoConsumer." Every month, Tom will offer smart and easy tips on how you, too, can become an eco-consumer.

Recently, I saw a cartoon that really made me laugh. It showed a homeowner standing in her small back yard with her landscaper, holding a picture of Versailles in her hand. The caption read "I'd like to try something like this."

Certainly Louis XIV valued the beauty that water adds to the garden, as the fountains of Versailles attest. However, my guess is that you don't have quite that kind of real estate. No matter how small your garden is - even if it is just a lanai or a small deck - you can experience the beauty and pleasure of water in the garden with less trouble than you might think. When space is at a premium, I often recommend adding a "water pot" to the garden. By choosing the appropriate container and planning accordingly you'll be surprised at how easy it is. What follows are some suggestions for containerized water features for the small garden.

The sound of splashing water is often something we look for in a water feature, and this is easily accomplished as long as there is a source of electricity for your container. Choose a container that complements the scale of the space it will stand in, and also an appropriately sized pump. Drill a hole with a masonry bit a few inches from the bottom of the container. Thread the pump's cord through a rubber plug, seal around holes with a silicone sealer, attach your piping and bubbler to the pump and splash away. If your container is unglazed on the inside (like terra cotta) you will also need to seal it with a premixed sealer like Drylock. Alternatively, balance a spout on the edge of the container (as with bamboo spouts) and no drilling is required. The water re-circulates but you may need to add more occasionally due to evaporation. Supplies are available at home improvement centers and many reputable nurseries.

In the absence of electricity, consider installing a container filled with aquatic or bog plants. The appropriate mix of plants will keep the water naturally clear, without added chemicals. Oxygenating grasses compete with algae for food. True aquatic plants do not mind having their crowns submerged in a few inches of water and some can live in water that is even deeper. There are also the carnivorous bog plants, like Sarracenia purpurea, which do not like to be submerged but don't mind very wet feet. A hole drilled higher up on the side of the container will keep the water from rising over the crowns. A great source of information for these types of water gardens is Oasis Water Gardens (206-767-9776) in the Georgetown area of Seattle.

Even a simple bird bath will create a source of water, decoration and an attraction for birds. A birdbath does require some regular cleaning, and birds don't particularly like warm water, so the bath should get some afternoon shade.

You may not get Versailles, but you can aim for the Petit Trianon!

by Toni Cross, CPH